OUR MALAWI OUR ECONOMY: THE ROADMAP TO RECOVERY, STABILITY AND SUSTAINABLE
SELF-RELIANCE [2013 AND AHEAD].
MARXIST PAPERS [2013]
BY
MARISEN MWALE
[LECTURER AND RESEARCHER – MZUZU UNIVERSITY]
Malawi as a nation is wallowing in economic dire-straits and
is in a crisis situation that needs ingenious and judicious policy reform to
avail itself. The IMF and the international community of western donors have
injected their infamous so called recovery ‘bitter pills’ but the million
dollar question that crops to mind when we reflect upon our situation remains
whether such structural adjustment proposal bring us any glimmer of hope to
economic recovery not only in the short term but even in the medium and long
run. When we project into the future do we see our nation prospering once more
in economic terms or are we forever trapped in a vicious cycle of causation and
poverty. Developmentally are we really forging ahead or rather backtracking and
retrogressing? Where actually do we forecast our economic growth within the
next 10 or 20 years? What policy direction in developmental terms do we really
need to realize our breakthrough to sustainable growth and economic self-reliance? When we sit back and reflect
do we see the IMF structural programmes translating into sustainable economic
development and tangible progress?
The bottomline is rather that the IMF policies might not
really be a deliberate ploy to keep Malawi and other developing economies
underdeveloped but the fact remains that the structural programmes as advocated
by the fiscal body and its partners may be drawing us deeper down the abyss of
economic deprivation and western donor dependency. The programmes rather keep
us skirting around the same economic problems and challenges in a vicious cycle
of perpetual causation. It is however not the purpose of this analysis to
debate discarding or sidelining western reliance since the west has been our
godmother and traditional donor since time immemorial. The gist of this
postulation is rather that it might make more prudent economic and
developmental sense to turn our focus east toward such economies as China and Japan
and to model our developmental reforms toward such if sustainable economic
progress is to be our goal and sole
prerogative. The fact remains that modicum short term injection packages of economic
reform and growth as are typical of the IMF programmes do not necessarily
translate into sustainable economic progress. I strongly do believe that we
have more to benefit and learn from the eastern economies than from the west.
Further to that, traditionally we rather share the same political and economic
ideologies and philosophies such as are locally developed networks and socially
based traditional communal philosophies that have seen most eastern economies
avail themselves from the pangs and syndrome of western donor aid and dependency.
It is rather paradoxical to note that in most of our African
political economy, the state has since been utilized as an instrument of
exploitation, repression and oppression by classes modeled toward the western
bourgeois with the system of law, justice and the economy originally bound up
in such precedence. Whatever resources are at the state’s disposal – economic,
jural, political, social or otherwise – have been perennially utilized by such bourgeois
classes to keep themselves in power by hook or crook. Such scenario are rather
peculiar to and reflective of an earlier stage in western civilization and
economic development that has since been transferred to and has found its roots
and nurturance in Africa and other developing economies possibly as a resultant
of earlier colonization and subservience to metropolitan states. It has been
alluded to somewhere that such political ideology was hitherto inclined toward
the subjugation of the inferior classes and the masses to basically bolster
control over the developing economies in general and Africa in particular. It
might not be an overstatement therefore to further speculate that such
political guise has been perpertually maintained and fostered in ways discreet
or otherwise to burgeon Neo-colonialism.
Given such a political, social and economic landscape the
question that we might pose further is as to what our judicious solution would
be to such ploy – overt or otherwise – to salvage our developing economies from
perpetual subjugation and repression. Do we need gradual reforms in our
development philosophies or rather reactive cataclysmic and dramatic sweeping
policy realignment? Whatever approach we adopt we need to bear in mind that it
is expedient upon us to have a panoramic or bifocal view of ‘where we are
going’.
Without this foresight we lack viable resolve for economic
recovery, no roadmap to competitive advantage vis-à-vis our neighbors, no game
plan for improving upon the welfare of our destitute and most vulnerable
citizenry and least of all prescriptions for achieving sustainable economic
progress. There is urgent need to chart prudent and tenable long-term pathway
to follow that is locally friendly and sustainable and in tandem with our
developmental needs and level of economic development. I do not think that we
need ‘one-fits-all’ prescriptions such as are dictated upon us by such fiscal
bodies as the IMF and are not specifically designed for and tailor-made for our
unique situations. We need not be tamed to drift aimlessly but rather there is
need for locally designed developmental beacons or blueprint that suit our
immediate circumstances and developmental level not only in the short run but
such as are future oriented. It needs further be appreciated that considering
the economic plights currently afflicting the nation it is not an option but an
imperative that we craft stringent mitigation economic measures to avail
ourselves. What immediate locally viable prescriptions then do we propose for
Malawi? The most expedient and pertinent leeway to economic recovery even in
our skepticism but with due respect to the IMF boss – Christine Laggarde – would
be to increase our export base and thus mitigate the negative misalignment
vis-à-vis our import base. That however cannot be achieved piecemeal or
overnight but it is a mountain that we can surmount with prudent forecasting
and planning. It is rather unequivocal to appreciate that our economy has been
dominantly agro-based for a period too long and it is high time we seriously
considered diversification into such sectors as mining and tourism.
Fundamental to the
thesis is the pertinent need to realize that we cannot rule out the fact that
our immediate short-term prescriptions might not overrule the need to
stringently realign our agricultural sector whose sustainable role as the
backbone of our economy we cannot underestimate. The question we might pose
further is as to how we could go about realigning our agricultural sector. The
most prudent alternative would be to consider stringent commercialization and
mechanization of the sector. We could for instance redevelop the schemes that
used to flourish during the Kamuzu era. We could work the schemes all year
round through rain-fed and irrigation mechanisms. There is a pool of
under-employed and unemployed youth who are idling all over our cities and
rural areas some of whom have invaluable skill in engineering and other
vocational skills having gone through TEVET or other such programmes yet they
have nothing tangible to do or are involved in insignificant piecework that
does not directly benefit the nation. Such a pool of youthful underemployed and
unemployed laborforce could be tapped to man these schemes. Such
commercialization can also gradually trickle down to the generic small scale
small-holder rural agricultural areas where we could improve upon our
traditional techniques and tools to maximize production on these small scale
pieces of arable land. It is worthy noting at this juncture that an economic
model driven by the agricultural sector is not only sustainable but ecologically
viable since it is grounded on progress that realigns economic activities and
consumption with ecological realities. Further the lake and the vast array of
perennial river networks across the nation which by all standards have hitherto
not really been utilized to spearhead the agricultural sector may be taken
advantage of for perennial year round irrigational commercial purposes.
Schemes such as were in the nature during the Kamuzu regime’s
young pioneers could be re-introduced but this time around with no emphasis on
militancy but rather skills development and economic progress. It is the gist
of this proposal that rather than abusing the youth politically, they could be
utilized to positively and directly contribute toward the development of our
ailing economy. Such large scale agro-based commercialization through what late
president Professor Bingu wa
Mtharika dabbed the ‘Green belt’ initiative is achievable and it could be done
best not only by integrating the under-employed and idling unemployed skilled
and unskilled youth who are gradually being transformed into militia by greedy
and unscrupulous political zealots but as well taking advantage of the
irrigational potential of the lake and perennial vast river systems.
Further by gradually trickling down such commercialization
and mechanization of production to rural areas with prospective aid from our
partners from the east –China and Japan- we could eventually scale down on the
subsidy fertilizer programme that has been unprecedentedly unpopular with our
western donors and alternatively scale up on an agricultural input revolving
fund and credit facility targeting the pool of generic small-holder farmers.
Such policy reform and direction has been self-sufficient and sustainable
before and could be easily supported by the western donor community due to its
fiscal viability and sustainability. To strengthen such an initiative and
improve upon its credibility our small-holder farmers could be integrated into
co-operatives as was the case during the Kamuzu era.
Through these co-operatives
we could gradually scale up production by means of commercialization and
mechanization hence increasing returns on the small holder pieces of arable
land. Agricultural equipment and
machinery such as the tractor and combine harvester and such other locally
appropriate technologies as may be necessary could be placed in centers akin to
the rural growth centers directly accessible to the co-operatives. These
centers could be distributed across the nation and act as access points from
whence our co-operatives could rent and utilize the machinery. The maximization
of production that could emanate from such initiative could lend feasible
credence and accord credibility to the one village one product [OVOP] Japanese
experimental project. The Japanese OVOP initiative per se could be incorporated
into this complex integrated commercialized rural development agenda to add
value to the products in the agro-schemes and rural co-operatives before the
output could be exported. That could afford such agro-products competitive
advantage on the international market. The pool of our under-employed skilled
youth could be utilized to man and run these proposed OVOP agro-industries. It
might as well be emphasized that the TEVET vocational training curriculum could
be revisited and tailor made to target and suit such policy initiative and any
other diversification direction the country might be moving toward such as
expediting the mining sector.
The whole proposed endeavor will not only ease and stabilize
our economy in the short and medium term, boost food security once more, mitigate
the rampant unemployment, curb rural-urban migration but above all else instill
positive externalities toward curtailing and eradicating gigantic social ills
in the guise of pauperism, disease due to malnutrition, and ameliorate the
perpetual starvation of the majority of our rural masses. Not only that, vices
typical of status discontentment and economic asperities and inequality such as
crime, prostitution, gambling and such other negative externalities could be
curtailed. We could also curb the hand-out syndrome and over-dependency on the
government and the western donor community to sustain rural livelihoods. By
affording such help through practicable opportunities of self-improvement for
all regardless of whatever disparities – social, economic, political or
otherwise- such humble initiative would go a long way in healing the wounds of
economic affliction the country is currently experiencing, in stabilizing the
balance of payment and above all else in revitalizing our agricultural sector
which has since been neglected and underutilized. The pool of underemployed skilled youth could
further be integrated into infrastructural development in these schemes by
working on the rejoinder roads and refurbishing the factory buildings and
machinery to promote the OVOP initiative not forgetting structures for the
mining sector whose potential for growth in Malawi cannot be underestimated or
overlooked. The proposal might be a dream far-fetched but the recovery addendum
might be our ultimate pis-aller in the road toward economic recovery, stability
and self-reliance. It is pertinent to not only appreciate that resigned
pessimism will not avail matters but above all else that there is always cause
for optimism for our esteemed developing nation.
